Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers

by Eugene H. Peterson

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2008

Overview

Just as God used words both to create the world and to give us commandments, we too use words for many different purposes. In fact, we use the same language to talk to each other and to talk to God. Can our everyday speech, then, be just as important as the words and prayers we hear from the pulpit? Eugene Peterson unequivocally says "Yes!"

Peterson's Tell It Slant explores how Jesus used language, particularly in his parables and prayers. His was not a direct language of information or instruction but an indirect, oblique language requiring a participating imagination -- "slant" language. Tell It Slant beautifully points to Jesus' engaging, relational way of speaking as a model for us today.

Key Features

• Focuses on the language and the way we use it in the Christian community
• Explores how Jesus talked to the people, and how He talked to His Father in prayer
• Tears down the fences erected between language that deals with God and language that deals with the people around us

Contents

I. Jesus in His Stories

• Jesus in Samaria: Luke 9:51-19:27
• The Neighbor: Luke 10:25-37
• The Friend: Luke 11:1-13
• The Barn Builder Luke 12:13-21
• Manure: Luke 13:6-9
• Table Talk: Luke 14:1-14
• The Lost Brothers: Luke 15
• The Rascal: Luke 16:1-9
• The Invisible Man: Luke 16:19-31
• The Widow: Luke 18:1-8
• The Sinners: Luke 18:9-14
• The Minimalist: Luke 19:11-27

II. Jesus in His Prayers

• Keeping Company with Jesus as He Prays: Six Prayers
• Jesus Prays with Us: Matthew 6:9-13
• Jesus Prays in Thanksgiving: Matthew 11:25-26 16.
• Jesus Prays in Anticipation of the End: John 12:27-28 17.
• Jesus Prays for Us: John 17
• Jesus Prays the Agony of Gethsemane: Matthew 26:39.42
• Jesus Prays from the Cross: The Seven Last Words
• Praying in Jesus' Name: Acorns into Oak Trees

Praise for Tell It Slant

Continuing his series of 'conversations' in spiritual theology, prolific author, pastor, and theologian Eugene Peterson provides an intimate look at Jesus' words. . . . Peterson's greatest gift is his ability to write about such ideas as sin, repentance, grace, and glory in masterfully simple — and concrete — ways.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

If books were priced according to the linguistic care with which their sentences were assembled, this volume would be priceless. Peterson strikes forcefully at theological abstraction and sentimental godtalk, offering a provocative treatise on the conversational giftedness of Jesus. . . . A compendium of marvelous insights for rethinking our own expressions of faith.

Peter W. Marty

Peterson, a master with language himself, looks at Jesus' use of language. . . . Preachers especially will find themselves returning to Peterson's imaginative expositions of Jesus' words and encounters.

Christian Century

Product Details

• Title: Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers
• Author: Eugene H. Peterson
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2008
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 287
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Parables; Jesus Christ › Prayers; Bible. N.T. Gospels › Language, style
• ISBNs: 9780802868862, 9780802829542, 9780802863799, 080286886X, 0802829546, 0802863795
• Resource ID: LLS:TELLSLANT
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:18:09Z

About Eugene H. Peterson

Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) was a pastor, scholar, author, and poet. He wrote more than thirty books, including his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, his memoir, The Pastor, and numerous works of biblical spiritual formation, including Run with the Horses, also available in a commemorative edition. Peterson was founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, where he served for twenty-nine years before retiring in 1991. With degrees from Seattle Pacific, New York Theological Seminary, and Johns Hopkins University, he served as professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, until retiring in Lakeside, Montana, in 2006.